A Good Problem to Have..

by Antonio on December 3, 2007

When I was hired as the CIO at Worcester Academy in 2002 the school had just purchased its first SmartBoard. When asked about how much use and demand the board had, I was surprised to find out that in fact, there was very little interest in the technology. Mind you, that at this time, Apple’s OS X had not really taken off, there were few laptops in circulation and wireless was relegated to a few science labs and the library. Five years later, there are few desktops left on our campus, wireless blankets the campus and our Technology Committee is beta testing the implementation of OS X Leopard. Faculty have received a new fleet of MacBooks (in year five now) and last year, we purchased a set of eight SmartBoards, hoping that this would take off. I recently emailed faculty with budget requests for the 2008/2009 year and I have for the first time received the largest number of requests for ceiling mounted projectors and SmartBoards. This shift is in many ways, a good problem to have. We have gone from laptops not being used to not having enough, arguing further for our movement toward a 1 to 1 laptop program and continued investment in professional development. Change takes time. Innovation does not happen overnight, but glimpses of it is really exciting.

You might also be interested in..

Tagged as: , , , ,

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Almost American 03.07.08 at 7:25 pm

Glad to hear faculty at WA are finally understanding what SmartBoards can do. I remember trying to explain to a math teacher what he could do with access to the web, and a SmartBoard. He kept telling me he ‘didn’t have time’. When I finally cornered him and showed him what he could do at some of the interactive websites, his eyes opened wide as he said “I could show the kids 10 examples like this in the time in takes to do one on the whiteboard” Well, duh! He requested a ceiling mounted projector and a SmartBoard for the following year.

Antonio 03.08.08 at 9:17 pm

It has taken some time but we are making progress. I think the key to successfully integrating technology or any curricular innovation is allowing faculty to enter with their own area of interest. A school that integrates only technology and ignores diversity or service learning for example would feel pretty vanilla. I think that when it comes to SmartBoards in particular, they can be overwhelming for some folks. Time and patience I contend. Time and patience. Thanks for sharing.